As we come out of the Christmas season just having celebrated the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is important to also remember His time here on earth. In John 15:10 Jesus says, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.” As Christians, our lives should be an imitation of the life of Jesus, and Jesus lived a life of perfect obedience, righteousness, and faithfulness to the Father.
In John 5:30 Jesus says “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.” Through His perfect obedience to the Father, Jesus lived a life of righteousness free from sin. He did this so that His righteousness could be transferred to those who put their faith in Him for the forgiveness of sins as 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Even though Jesus lived a life free from sin, it was not because he was free of temptations.
Being fully God and fully human (John 1:1-3), Jesus was subject to the same temptations we face, but unlike us, Jesus was able to overcome all temptations. He did this with the same tools we have available to us today: the Word of God (read Luke 4:4-12 and Ephesians 6:17), prayer (read Luke 22: 39-46 and Ephesians 6:18), and the Holy Spirit (read Luke 4 and Ephesians 5:18).
In this new year of 2023, let us strive to imitate Jesus and His life of perfect obedience, righteousness, and faithfulness to the Father. Let us arm ourselves with the sword of the Spirit by being in His Word daily and strive to pray at all times for every occasion. Let us also remember Jesus’s promise of the Holy Spirit in John 14:15-17 when He said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”
Bob Scaia
Elder
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